Royersford woman takes Jell-O shots, punches birthday celebrant

ROYERSFORD — An unwelcome guest at a woman’s birthday party grabbed her by the neck and punched her in the head after consuming all the party’s Jell-O shots, police said.

Royersford Police arrived around 8:45 p.m. Saturday to a residence on Main Street for a report of a domestic altercation called in by a 15-year-old girl in attendance.

An arriving officer spoke with the adult victim of the altercation, who said it was her birthday party and Gwen House, 32, of Royersford, was “not welcomed at the party to begin with,” an affidavit of probable cause said.

The victim ran a quick errand and came home to find that 12 Jell-O shots made for the celebration were all consumed by House.

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When the victim confronted her, House allegedly struck her “in the upper torso area and neck.”

“The defendant (then) grabbed (the victim) forcefully around her neck during the attack and then hit (her) with a closed fist in the jaw,” police said.

Eventually, other members of the family broke up the attack and police were called.

“As I was dealing with the investigation, the defendant was instructed many times to stay against the police car as she was not able to keep her balance,” wrote the responding police officer in the affidavit. “She had multiple occasions where she stumbled and needed our help to right herself back up.”

Police said House “is a prescription drug and PCP abuser” and four empty bottles of prescription narcotics in her bra “were consumed in conjunction with the alcohol.”

All the pill bottles had House’s name on them, police said.

House was charged with misdemeanor simple asault, and summary counts of physical harassment and public drunkenness.

In an arraignment before on-call District Judge Harold Borek, House’s bail was assessed at $10,000 cash. In lieu of that, she was sent to Montgomery County Correctional Facility.

A Mercury article from August 2006 said House was arrested in February that year for trying to pass a fraudulent prescription for Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication, at a Kmart pharmacy in Lower Pottsgrove.

She was sentenced to roughly half a year in prison.

According to court documents, House has other previous arrests for theft and drugs.